Today, we received another recall notice for our Prius, this time to fix a problem with a previous recall (is Microsoft running Toyota now?). The recall is NHTSA Recall # 18V-684. Besides having to recall a recall repair, what's scary is that when we go to Toyota's official recall website, toyota.com/recall and enter our VIN, it tells us "There are no open Safety Recalls or Service Campaigns for this vehicle." This does not instill confidence in Toyota at all.
Maybe you incorrectly entered your vin number? I was in the dealer yesterday having them check open recalls on mine. I have two. Airbags and Software update.
Zero chance of that. We even took a screenshot of the official Toyota Recalls website that shows our VIN and states that there are no open safety recalls for it. The VIN we entered is IDENTICAL to the safety recall notice we received in the mail indicating "IMPORTANT SAFETY RECALL... This recall remedy will address a new condition in the vehicles involved in previous Safety Recalls E0E & F0R." By the way, when we called the Toyota recalls hotline, they adamantly instructed us to stop driving our Prius IMMEDIATELY because it is unsafe due to an airbag recall. When we went to the dealership, they said our Prius does not have the airbags involved in the recall. We think it's fair to say that Toyota doesn't seem to know their arse from their elbows.
The Toyota/Dealer safety recall policies and proceedure protocol is pretty sophisticated for them to be second guessing one another. I would tend to think your dealer didn’t take the time to even check their records correctly. In other words, I think your dealer is talking out of THEIR arse.
Since that recall is only for the Gen 3 Prius, we can assume the problem was fixed for the Gen 4 models. It appears Toyota did indeen "get their act together".
Actually, that recall is to fix a problem either created by the fix for their previous recall, or that their previous recall failed to fix. Ugh.
The Toyota safety recall team, who told us that we immediately needed the fix for the air bag recall, called the dealership. The dealership told them the recall doesn't apply to our Prius. So then the Toyota safety recall team told us we don't need it. In other words, they considered the dealship's opinion to supersede their own.
If that was true, then why is Toyota sending us an official Safety Recall notice, based on our VIN, in the mail?
Sounds like the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. Sorta leaves you with an uneasiness, eh?
The dealer enters in the vin and all the pending recalls pop up. This is not that hard! I would go by what the dealer tells you.
I was just at the dealer yesterday for airbag and hybrid system recall. There were no mentions of any other recalls. Edit: Hybrid system recall performed yesterday was J0V (NHTSA 18V684) released 10/3/18. It is indeed a remedy for previous recalls, E0E & F0R. If you have already performed recall J0V, I would check the return address of that notice. I suspect it came from a dealer different than the one at which service was performed. Dealers are typically paid by manufacturers for any recall work.
Thanks. The "from" address on the Safety Recall notice is: Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. Inc. 6565 Headquarters Drive Plano, TX 75024 It appears to be from Toyota USA headquarters, and not a dealership.
Are you saying 18V-684 is being recalled, or 18V-684 is to fix another recall? The reason I ask is because 4 days after my sister had recall 18V-684 applied to her 2013 Prius the brake, ABS, and skid control lights came on. The vehicle wasn't braking at the time the lights illuminated, but the condition did cause a reduction of brake control. The next day while driving to the Toyota dealer, the lights and brakes worked properly. Their service department said they were not able to reset the code, and that meant she needed a $3,400 brake actuator repair. So the question is, was this failure super-coincidental, or due to a bug in software update 18V-684...?
Sorry to hear about your sister's Prius. We don't know the answer to your last question, but the answer to you first question is that, to the best of our understanding, 18V-684 is a safety recall to fix another safety recall.
This recall—under its Toyota identifier, J0V—has been discussed extensively in another thread: Safety Recall J0V - Where is the Remedy? | PriusChat I can’t explain Toyota’s website or letters, but if it were my car, I’d want positive confirmation that the recall work has been done according to Toyota’s Technical Instructions (PDF), as revised on January 17, 2019. I’d suggest taking the car and recall notice to a Toyota dealer. If they say there’s nothing to be done, ask them to prove it. It should take them just a few minutes to connect a Toyota Techstream diagnostic system to the car and print a Health Check report. (You want the standard one, not the simplified “customer” version.) From the Health Check report, you and the service writer can confirm that (1) none of the recall-related diagnostic trouble codes P0A94, P324E, P3004 or P0A1A (Technical Instructions, page 2) is present, meaning your car wouldn’t need any of the inverter repairs from the recall, and (2) the updated Hybrid Control software is installed. Three of the four Hybrid Control calibration IDs (CIDs, software version numbers) in the Health Check report should match those listed in the Technical Instructions on page 14 (or, for later model years, pages 15–18) in the right-hand column. (CID #2 may not match.)
